Embracing a Proud Past, Joan Jett Keeps It Simple

Joan Jett brought her groundbreaking rock to Southpaw on Tuesday. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, including Dougie Needles, right, are touring to support the new album "Sinner."Credit
Rahav Segev for The New York Times

In the 1980's, when she ruled Top 40 radio, Joan Jett was the perfect embodiment of rock's primal qualities. She was young, cocky, sexy, rebellious and knew how to rock a pair of leather pants. She had a signature look (shag haircut and heavy eyeliner), a jailbait past (she joined the Runaways at age 15) and a punk-rock pedigree (she was friends with Sid Vicious and produced the Germs). It's hard to think of a cooler 80's rocker — maybe Axl Rose? But unlike Mr. Rose, with his odd behavior and even odder new face, Ms. Jett has aged with grace. At 47, she seems eerily youthful and unjaded.

Let's see Madonna pull this off: Ms. Jett arrived in a skimpy bikini top and black leather pants worn so low you could see her hipbones. Her tattooed arms were toned and sinewy; her face was girlish, as if she had just stepped out of the "Bad Reputation" video. Her fitness regime probably involves airborne kicks and rooster strutting. "Joan, you are obscenely sexy, and I want to marry you!" a woman in the audience shouted as Ms. Jett swaggered to the Runaways' classic "Cherry Bomb." Later a female fan rushed the stage and tried to kiss her.

Ms. Jett seemed revolutionary in the 80's because she acted as if being a (rare) female guitar virtuoso was no big deal. She proclaimed "I Love Rock N' Roll" with the casual sense of entitlement of a male legend. Over the years Ms. Jett grew more political, and she is now hailed as a groundbreaking feminist hero. The sold-out show at the Brooklyn club Southpaw on Tuesday was packed with adoring women in their 30's and young, hand-holding lesbian couples. When Ms. Jett sang "Do you want to touch me there?," she was rewarded with deafening screams of "Yeah!"

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are touring to support the new album "Sinner," Ms. Jett's first studio effort since the 90's. She is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her label, Blackheart Records, by reissuing her early work. And Ms. Jett has joined this summer's Vans Warped Tour, where she is likely to upstage artists almost three decades younger.

The simplistic new punk song "Change the World" is tailor-made for that audience, with its plainspoken call to arms. The lyrics to The Replacements' "Androgynous" sounded especially clunky live ("She's happy with the way she looks/she's happy with her gender") but still generated cheers.

At times it sounded as if Ms. Jett had been kidnapped by a bland Midwestern bar band. But as she and her all-male backup obliged the crowd with nearly all of her hits (including her excellent "Crimson and Clover" cover), it didn't really matter. Even her voice is remarkably young, untainted by bitterness or ennui.